Background
Joseph Bohomiel Lapchick was born in Yonkers, New York, the son of Joseph B. Lapchick, a Czech immigrant who was a hat finisher but later became a policeman, and Frances Kassik. He was the oldest of seven children.
Joseph Bohomiel Lapchick was born in Yonkers, New York, the son of Joseph B. Lapchick, a Czech immigrant who was a hat finisher but later became a policeman, and Frances Kassik. He was the oldest of seven children.
He did not attend high school.
Lapchick was forced to go to work at an early age and started as a machinist's apprentice.
He got his first basketball experience with neighborhood teams. At the age of twelve he played for the Trinity Midgets. At sixteen he played for the semiprofessional Hollywood Inn Club in Yonkers. In 1919, Lapchick quit his machinist's job to enter professional sports.
Six feet, five inches tall and possessed of excellent passing and shooting skills, Lapchick began playing center for Holyoke in the old Western Massachusetts League and remained with the team until 1923. At the same time, he played for the Brooklyn Visitations of the Metropolitan League and for Troy in the New York State League.
His excellent career with the original New York Celtics began in 1923. In 1927 he joined the Cleveland Rosenblums and was the center for two world-title teams. From 1930 to 1936 he toured the United States with the reorganized New York Celtics, a team financed by the singer Kate Smith.
In 1936, Lapchick accepted the position of coach at St. John's University, which was then located in Brooklyn, New York. In that position, he adhered closely to the principles he had learned with the Celtics: a freewheeling offense featuring quick, slick, sure ball handling; five-man movement; extensive individual initiative; and tenacious man-to-man defense. Also characteristic of Lapchick-coached teams were poise and intelligence.
In his first tenure at St. John's (1936 - 1947), his teams never lost more than seven games a season. In 1947, Lapchick reentered professional basketball as head coach of the New York Knickerbockers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). In his nine seasons with the "Knicks, " the team reached the NBA playoffs eight times, and in 1951, 1952, and 1953 it reached the championship finals. His 1954 team is known as the Team of Coaches, because eight members of that team became coaches themselves. The pressures of a seventy-two-game schedule, constant travel, and tension with the owner of the Knicks, Ned Irish, led to Lapchick's resignation on January 27, 1956.
Shortly thereafter, he returned to St. John's, which was in the process of moving to Jamaica in Queens, New York. He remained at St. John's until 1965, when he retired from active coaching.
After his retirement, Lapchick was employed by a New York shoe company as a consultant on athletic footwear. He also served as director of sports at Kutsher's Country Club in Monticello, New York. He spent most of his time, however, enjoying his favorite recreational activities--carpentry, golf, and gardening. He died at Kutsher's Country Club after finishing a round of golf.
Despite a persistent problem of referee baiting, Lapchick was referred to affectionately as "the Coach. " College players and coaches respected him for his knowledge of the game and concern for his players.
Lapchick was mostly known for playing with the Original Celtics in the 1920s and 1930s. He was commonly regarded as the best center of his era, overshadowed in his later years only by Tarzan Cooper. During Lapchick's years as coach, St. John's won over 70 percent of its games and played in a dozen postseason tournaments. His teams captured a record four National Invitational Tournament (NIT) championships--in 1943, 1944, 1959, and 1965. His 1959 and 1965 teams also won the Holiday Festival. Fittingly, his last game as St. John's coach was a 55-51 upset win over Villanova for the NIT title on March 20, 1965. Lapchick received numerous awards for his fifty years of service to the game, including national college Coach of the Year (twice) and the National Association Basketball Committee's Metropolitan Award. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the original New York Celtics in 1959 and as an individual player in 1966. The Joe Lapchick Award, established in 1971, is presented annually to the nation's top college senior basketball player. A tournament in his honor initiates the St. John's basketball season.
Quotes from others about the person
Leroy Ellis, a member of the 1965 NIT championship team, said: "The thing about playing for Mr. Lapchick is that he cares about you as a person. If you've got a problem you can come to him. He helped me as a player, but he helped me more as a person. "
Lou Carneseca, who succeeded Lapchick as coach at St. John's, stated: "I learned more about basketball, and life, just by hearing the old Coachie clear his throat than I did at a thousand basketball clinics. "
On May 14, 1932, Lapchick married Elizabeth Sarubbi. They had three children.
